Red Bull told to redesign nose of its car

Red Bull must redesign the nose of its car, after Adrian Newey exploited a loophole in the 2014 rules.

Keen-eyed observers noticed throughout the winter and again when the race season began that the RB10 did not have the mandatory camera mountings installed as per normal. A closer look at the nose revealed that a tiny hole for the television camera lens had been cut between the ‘Casio’ and ‘Pirelli’ logos in the nose.

The rules say the mountings must not be located inside the carbon structure itself, but Newey’s loophole is that the camera was in fact inside the non-structural ‘vanity panel’ introduced last year to hide the unseemly nose steps. But while it satisfied the actual wording of the rules, commercial rights holder Formula One Management was less happy with the Red Bull trick.

It meant FOM could no longer use the Red Bull nose camera for a rearward-facing view. And Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the Bernie Ecclestone-led company was also unhappy with the front view, moving Red Bull to improve the ‘hole in the nose’ ahead of the recent Spanish grand prix. But Ecclestone reportedly remained unhappy even with the Barcelona solution. So from Monaco this weekend, the RB10 will be fitted with the standard FIA mountings on the outside of the nose structure, as per the other teams in 2014 like Ferrari and Mercedes.